iPad Thoughts
Apple Missed Their Target Price
6 versions of the same product isn't like Apple. The device is also superior when it is 3G capable. I can understand if people don't want to sign-up for the contract but I think offering a non-3G capable version is Apple really trying to drive the price down as low as possible. They wanted it to be cheaper and they're stretching themselves to get there.
Apple's Control of the Rumor Mill is Masterful
Everyone had reported rumors of prices in the range of $800 to $1,000. I'm willing to bet that Apple put those prices out there knowing full well that they were going to come in at $499. $499 is a good price point even without the rumors but setting the expectations at $1,000 makes it a great price point. Lower the expectations and then kill it.
Apple Stock Price Down
There was a crazy amount of hype over this product, similar to when they announced the iPhone. For as obviously amazing of a product the iPhone was, the stock price right after the announcement went down about 5%-8% and sat there for about two weeks before hitting all-time highs. You're seeing similar behavior right now, stock price is down 5% today and probably will stay there (or lower) for a few weeks. Just a guess.
Full disclosure - I bought Apple stock right before the iPhone announcement and again a week before the iPad.
Why Not Full OSX?
OSX wasn't built with touch being the primary method of input. It needed to be on the iPhone OS, it was built for touch. Yes, they put Windows on touch mobile devices.. How great was that user experience?
It's a Giant iPod Touch!
Yeah.. that's true.
iPad Took A Lot Of Work
I don't think most people will notice but Apple had to re-write a lot of their software to make it work with the iPad. They knew that you couldn't just load up the same iWorks that people used on desktops because you don't have a keyboard and a mouse. They actually had to design and re-write how people interacted with those programs, that is not a trivial amount of work. Other companies, one in particular comes to mind, would have made sure existing software worked on the new device and been satisfied with that. That's what sets Apple apart. They realize that if you're asking people to change the way they fundamentally interact with the device, you need to write the software to reflect that.
Am I Buying One?
It's the perfect, sit on the couch on a Sunday, watch TV and surf the web device. Unfortunately I don't really do that. One of my night time rituals is I watch a episode of something (anime, tv shows, etc.) before I go to bed and this would be great for that.. then I saw it didn't have flash which meant no Hulu. Seriously what is the deal with the no flash?!
So I don't know. I want to see it and I'm tempted despite having no real use for it. I'm not the target market though, they're really going after the netbook market. We just bought my mom a netbook for Christmas and this probably would have been a great alternative.
